Shaman tactics
=General Tactics= Weapon Choice Two intersecting debates rage around the "best" weapon choice for the shaman: "shield vs. two-handed weapon" and "big weapon vs. fast weapon". All sides of these debates make decent points, which suggests that this is largely a matter of personal style; however whatever road you decide to walk weapons-wise, make sure the rest of your abilities (see the Talents section, below, in particular) enhance the strategy you've chosen, as shaman have some abilities that lend themselves to one style and different abilities that lend themselves to other styles. In no particular order, the three basic possibilities are these: Two-Handed Weapon Using a two-handed weapon means much higher damage per second, but forgoing a shield. Thus, the idea is to crush your opponent quickly, before being injured too badly. Another argument for this style is that many two-handed weapons, particularly staffs, are available with significant boosts to attributes useful to the shaman. Using this style, Flametongue Weapon is often the best choice for a weapon buff, as slower weapons gain more fire damage than faster ones. Windfury Weapon is another excellent choice, as the one-in-five chance to get two additional attacks effectively increases the speed of the weapon. Shield and Fast Weapon Fast weapons, like daggers, produce similar damage per second of other one-handed weapons, but increase the rate at which attacks are made. The idea here is that the shaman has a number of abilities that work on a "per strike" basis, so the more swings you make, the more benefits you get from such abilities. Naturally, using a one-handed weapon frees the other hand for a shield, which radically increases a shaman's armor rating, particularly below level 40. The other weapon buffs are all useful with this style. Rockbiter Weapon increases the base power of the weapon. The remaining weapon buffs, Frostbrand Weapon and Windfury Weapon have a chance to produce an effect with each hit. Shield and Big Weapon The style combines the previous two, sacrificing some of the punch of a two-handed weapon for better defense. Both Flametongue Weapon and Rockbiter Weapon are useful with this style. Combat Whatever weapon choice you make, make sure you have a weapon buff on at all times. If you are soloing, always keep your Lightning Shield active, and be prepared to reactivate it in the middle of combat, possibly repeatedly. If you are in a group and are playing a support/healing role, you may want to be careful about activating Lightning Shield, since it will tend to make it harder to pull aggro from you. Most combats will start with a Flame Shock, the shaman's only non-totem DoT spell. It is usually a good idea to keep a lower-powered shock in reserve to prevent your opponent from fleeing or casting a spell on you. Earth Shock can disrupt casting, so you may want to keep one ready at all times. Unless you are reserving mana, you should always have a Stoneskin Totem up. You can have one totem of each element active at once, but these will largely be situational. For example, the Searing Totem will crank up your damage curve, but in close quarters may attack mobs you were not quite ready to engage. Totems You need to undertake certain quests to gain your totems; however, you need not go out of your way to do these quests with all possible haste. The level at which you are available for these quests is far enough below the level when you gain the spells that require the totem that you have some leeway. You should do them at earliest opportunity, but find quests in the same area you are going so you can maximize that (often sizable) travel time these quests require. Using your totem spells to maximum advantage is more art than science. Since you can only use one of each element at a time, which one you select will depend on the situation you are in. Talents Selecting Shaman Talents efficiently is a bit more subtle than with some of the other classes. Some of this selection goes hand in hand with your weapon selection (mentioned above). For example, the Thundering Strikes talent lends itself to a fast weapon style while two-handed styles will almost definitely want the Two-Handed Axes and Maces talent. Another consideration is how (or if) you want to specialize in, say, healing instead of elemental combat. Good talent builders are available at the WoW Vault and ThottBot, each with comments on various strategies for talent use. Key Spells As with all classes, some of the shaman's spells are more useful than others. Some have uses that are not immediately obvious. * Earth Shock is not as useful for direct damage as Flame Shock and Frost Shock, but it disrupts casting. Against casters, or in PvP, it can be extremely useful. * The DoT of a Flame Shock provides a cheap way to bump the shaman's damage curve. * Ghost Wolf has been called the best ability in the game by some and aids escaping significantly, particularly with the Improved Ghost Wolf talent. * The Stoneclaw Totem can be used when being chased or to escape several opponents. It is fairly easy to generate more aggro than the totem, though, so isn't quite as useful as it sounds. * While a number of spells are available to slow opponents (e.g. Earthbind Totem, Frost Shock, Frostbrand Weapon), Shaman have none that completely root an opponent. * The Lesser Healing Wave spells can be cast up to twice as fast, generate less threat, and are slightly less mana efficient, than the Healing Wave spell the shaman will know at the same time, but don't heal as much damage. Generally you'll have one of each at your fingertips all of the time. * Generous casting of the Windfury Totem will make the Warriors in your group love you, since it increases their attack rate and therefore their rate of rage buildup. * Flametongue, strength of earth and Grace of Air totems are an even better (but more expensive) combo, cause it will raise their attackpower (120 at lvl 60), shield blocks, critical chance (2.5% at lvl 60), armour and damage output significantly. Gear Gear largely depends on playstyle. Elemental Combat and Restoration specs will likely favour int and spirit gear. Meanwhile, Enhancement specs will favour strength and agility, for hard hits, crits, and armour. When playing as the tank, stamina gear can be a great help. Good stamina gear and high level Power Word: Fortitude can give a level 40 shaman over 4000 health, and high armour to keep that health up. =PvE Tactics= Solo PvE Tactics When soloing, totems that affect your group will, naturally, not be as cost-effective. Often, you will want to reserve mana for Earth Shocks, so might not drop totems as often. You will almost always be more than a match for a single mob of equal, or even slightly higher, level. You will almost always lose to two such mobs at once, unless you are about four or five levels higher than them. So, when fighting multiple opponents, it will be worth throwing some mana around, particularly on effects that affect all opponents, like Earthbind Totem or Fire Nova Totem. The Searing Totem often isn't as effective in such cases, because the opponent you are not actively fighting will tend to destroy it. Group PvE Tactics The Shaman can play many roles in a group, including melee, caster, and support. He is not as strong as a specialist at any of these, but he can quickly shift gears if needed. Some general notes: * Stoneskin Totem is always useful, though the usefulness diminishes at higher (especially elite) levels (27 damage reduction before armour reduction is not that useful on 400+ damage hits). The more people in your group, the more it helps. * Strength of Earth Totem is helpful to class mates that are strength based, like a Warrior. * Disrupting enemy casters with Earth Shock helps deal with healers and ranged casters * Windfury Totem dramatically increases the DPS and rage buildup of your frontline fighters. * Fire totems consume large amounts of mana, and should be used sparingly, especially if playing as the healer. * Quick casts of Cure Disease and Cure Poison can cancel enemy DoT attacks (You can also use Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem for large groups or repeated poisoning/diseasing.) * Frost Shock and Earthbind Totem can slow down enemy adds or prevent fleeing mobs from gathering reinforcements Sadly, Healing Stream Totem and Mana Spring Totem Level 1 are really not all that useful. The amount of damage or mana provided by these totems is so much lower than what is being spent that you're almost always better off saving the mana to get the combat over quicker. However, Mana Spring Totem Levels 2 and above produce more mana then are spent on them. This makes them slightly more efiicient to use. This is good when in a caster heavy party (Mage, Priest, Druid, Shaman) in battle, and also afterwards in order to reduce downtime for mana regeneration. =PvP Tactics= Solo PvP Tactics One good trick involves some quick mouse work. When trying to escape an opponent, autorun away from them. Then, jump, quickly rotate around in the air, Frost Shock, and rotate back before you land. This allows you to snare your opponent with no loss in forward momentum. Group PvP Tactics Raid PvP Tactics Battlegrounds =Working with Other Classes= Things Shamans want Non-Shamans to know Shamans and groups It seems that often Shamans are thought of as nothing but Priests with shocks, which isn't true. We straddle the border between 3 worlds: we're good (but not great) damage-dealers, we're good (but not great) damage-takers, and we're good (but not great) healers, with those abilities becoming great depending on which talents we choose. A shaman who specializes in Enhancement effectively becomes a secondary tank. So don't be surprised to find us up with the warriors, at least at the start of the battle. Elemental and/or Enhancement shamans typically come in guns blazing at the beginning of a fight (dropping totems as needed), then gradually fall back to a healing position to keep everyone else alive. Warriors & Rogues will always be at the front kicking ass, Mages and Priests will always be in the back throwing out spells and heals, but a shaman will be where he's needed most. Don't expect us to hang around in the back waiting for you to bleed. Not only is that boring for shamans, but it's also a waste of a slot in your group. If you want a priest, get a priest. Things Non-Shamans want Shamans to know Rogues use poisons, which are overridden by your windfury totems. Most rogues prefer an agility totem anyway, so don't use windfury when there is a rogue in your party. Warriors want to have all aggro. Getting hit is good for their rage and they have the best armour anyway. Don't use rockbiter weapon and/or earthshock when fighting side by side with a warrior. Use windfury with twohanded weapons and flameshock instead. =How to Kill A...= Rogue *The most dangerous thing about a rogue is that you usually can't see them until it's too late. They'll come up behind you when stealthed, and hit you with stuns, poisons, etc., and then it's all over. To prevent this, first and foremost, take the following steps: ** Always have Lightning Shield up. Though it will only damage the rogue every view secconds, it's the only damage you'll do to him while he still stuns you. ** Magma Totem and Earthbind Totem will reveal a stealthed rogue. It's a good idea to drop one every time you stop moving for any reason. It's also handy to drop them in narrow passages to prevent them from sneaking by. * Have Cure Poison ready at all times. Don't bother with your Poison Cleansing Totem, because it won't proc often enough. * Don't bother with Earth Shock. Your friends with Rogues are Flame Shock & Frost Shock. ** Keep Flame Shocking rogues. The DoT effect will prevent them from stealthing while it's active. ** Rogues are fast. Frost Shock will slow them down a lot, and help to keep them from running away when they start to lose. But if you can, just use an Earthbind Totem, so you can use flameshock to keep him visible. * Windfury Weapon is probably the best weapon enhancement to use. Its ability to do a ton of damage quickly will help you knock down their health when you're not shocking them. If you get lucky, Windfury can make the battle much, much shorter. * Always have the Insigia trinket that you can purchase as a Grunt equipped. If you happen to get stunlocked by a rogue, it'll help you turn the tables. * take the Nature's quickness talent to heal yourself after the stun. After that, just keep the rogue visible with Flame Shock, close to yo with Earthbind Totem and beat the hell out of him, he'll stand no chance really. Warrior * Don't melee a warrior. * Don't melee a warrior. * Of course if you DO melee a warrior with a enhancement/healing specced Shaman, you will still easily win. Flameshock, Windfury or Flametongue, lightning shield and one quickened (nature's swiftness) healing wave are enough most of the time. But tactics below will be usefull as soon as Blizzard will nerf the shaman and better the warrior. * Frost shock comes in handy when fighting warriors. It helps you to keep them from closing to melee range, so you can kite them with shocks. * At the start of a fight, drop an Earthbind to slow their charges. Priest * If you try to fight a Priest, they will probably use their Psychic Scream spell to scare you away. So, try to drop a Tremor Totem at just the right moment to keep you in control of the situation. * The battle basically comes down to a healing match. Do as much melee damage as you can, and whenever you see them channeling a spell, Earth Shock them to interrupt. You always want to have a Rank 1 Earth Shock set up in addition to your highest rank if you get low on mana, or don't want to waste mana. * Purge! A lot of priests will raise a Power Word: Shield and start healing when the situation becomes too dangerous. Dispelling the shield, followed by Earth Shock can effectively prevent this, although one should be weary of smart priests that feign a heal by first casting some other spell (which a shaman might shock out of a reflex). Warlock * Purge. Warlocks will often buff themselves with Demon Armor, whcih can be dispelled. * Warlocks will try to Fear you so drop a Tremor Totem. * Dont worry about direct damage just make sure you keep the DoTs off of you. * Get into Melee range and go straight for the warlock (ignore the pet). Mage * Purge! Mages will have Frost Armor and Arcane Intellect cast on themselves as a standard buff. * Drop a Grounding Totem when the "hands light up" (which usually is the first thing you will see happen in case of a Fire Mage). * Earth Shock whenever you see them channeling a spell. * Try to figure out what type of Mage you're fighting quickly, and drop the appropriate totem - Frost Resistance Totem for Frost Mages, Fire Resistance Totem for Fire Mages. If they're an Arcane Mage...hope you've got some Arcane resistance built into your armor. * A Mage may try to Polymorph you. Don't panic though - you'll revert to your normal self if you take any damage, and while you're sheeped you'll quickly regain your health and mana. * Bash them on the head really hard. Druid * Purge! * The druid is a weird class to battle. They can switch forms quite rapidly during combat, switching from a caster class to a warrior class, to a rogue class. The key adaptation is to treat every form as the associated class (ie. Cat Form as a rogue, Bear Form as a warrior and Druid form as a caster). * Should the druid start to run in Travel Form, slow him down with Frost Shock and Earthbind Totems. Hunter * Ignore the pet. * A hunter is most effective from a distance. Get into melee range and lay on the hurt in whatever way you prefer. * Frost Shock and Earthbind will keep them in melee range. * Cure Poison should be hotkeyed. Don't bother with the totem. It's basically only useful with NPCs. * If you suspect that they may be using the Freeze trap, drop a Frost-Resist totem first. You could drop a Fire-Resist for the Fire trap, but it's not really that much of a problem. * Earth Shock should probably be avoided, just because Flame Shock is more mana-efficient, and Frost Shock will slow them. * If you need to heal, be sure you're in melee range first, and if the hunter is slowed, even better. He'll back off to shoot you, giving you time to get off a quick heal, so use Lesser Healing Wave. Regular Healing Wave will give them too much time, and remember that their pet is still probably hacking at you, so you'll be interrupted way too much. Paladin * Place any kind of Dmg totem what so ever. * Keep the Paladin Slowed. * Kite and harrass. * Repeat Shaman * You're only going to be fighting shamans in friendly duels, so don't worry about it too much. * It often comes down to who has Nature's Swiftness or not, and who's the better/luckier player. =How to Help A...= Rogue *Find out if they're using Poisons, Counterweights, or Sharpening Stones. If you drop a weapon-effect totem, (Flametongue, Windfury, etc.) it will override whatever effects they have on their Main Hand weapon, but not the Off-Hand. *Grace of Air totem is great for Rogues, because it gives them even more agility. Warrior * Strength of Earth and Windfury Totem are great for warriors. Helps then do more damage and take more damage. * Warriors have a ton of HP, so they need big heals. It's best to primarily use Healing Wave on Warriors, unless they're dying fast and you're taking damage. Then use a whole lot of Lesser Healing Wave. Remember: they don't have negative health points, so even a huge Healing Wave is worthless if they're dead. * Try not to use Earth Shock until the end of a battle (after the Warrior has built up a lot of aggro), unless you're using it to disrupt casters. It causes a ton of aggro and will peel mobs off the warrior. Alternate between Flame Shock and Frost Shock - Flame Shock is the most mana-efficient, whereas you use Frost Shock while Flame Shock's DOT is still going. Priest * Keep your eyes locked on the Priest's HP and Mana bars. They often become so engrossed in keeping others alive that they forget to heal themselves. * If you see their mana bar getting too low, it's time to kick YOUR healing into high gear. Try not to blow your mana early in the battle! * Dropping a Healing totem can help make a priest's job a lot easier by filling in the piddly amounts of damage that are done by AOEs and stuff. * Just like with Warlocks, if you see a mob on a Priest, Earth Shock them to get them off! Warlock * Warlocks are suicide machines. Keep them alive! * If you see a mob on a Warlock (or any caster), Earth Shock will likely get them to attack you instead - better that they're attacking the Mail-user than the Cloth-user. Then find a way to get the Warrior's attention. Mage Druid Hunter * Hunters are really the only class that you usually don't have to worry about healing much, or keeping aggro off. They can Feign Death, giving them time to heal themselves with bandages or whatever they have. * Remember, with a Hunter, there's another member of your party you need to keep track of, and you don't get a hotkey and tab for them: the pet! So, it's a good idea to set up a macro button to target their pet (/target Petname), so you can see if they need healing or not. Also, by pressing "V" (by default), it'll put a health bar above the pet (if you have that option turned on in the Interface settings), which makes it a lot easier to track. * Grace of Air Totem helps Hunters do more damage and last longer. Enough said. Paladin * HELP a Paladin? HA HA HA! Well, if you ever somehow manage to group with a pally... * Windfury. It helps them as much as a warrior since pallies aren't that good with aggro gaining. 'nuff said * Mana-generating totems help as their heals are particularly unefficient. Holy pallies and people who judge and use holy shield a lot (It's NOT the bubble spell) will make you their new God. * If mob(s) you're facing use(s) more than one element in their spells, combine a resistance totem with a pally resistance aura. Good luck trying to get a pally in your group! ;P Shaman * Organize with them beforehand to make sure you're not dropping the same totems they are, since the effects don't stack. * With 2 shamans in a group, you could have Strength of Earth and Stoneskin, Grace of Air and Windfury Totem, Healing Spring and Mana Spring, etc. Your party will be MUCH harder to kill. Category:Shamans Category:Tactics Category:Stubs